Independent agencies to check quality of coal supplied by Coal India to power firms

NEW DELHI: The government has approved empanelling independent agencies to check the quality of coal supplied by Coal India Ltd (CIL) to power firms, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup said on Monday.

The coal ministry has also decided that power plants of public sector undertakings will get coal supply from CIL till their captive coal mines become operational.

The coal ministry has authorised Central Institute for Mining and Fuel Research to empanel third party sampling agencies through a transparent process.

Power companies, including state-run NTPC, have been complaining of poor quality or lowgrade coal supplied by CIL.

Under the new guidelines, the independent sampler will collect four samples, one each for the buyer and CIL, one for sampling and one for referral.

The sampling agency shall communicate the results of the sampling in 18 days. Parties can dispute it in seven days, following which the referee sample will be sent to government testing laboratories, Swarup explained.

Swarup said power plants of public sector undertakings will get coal supply from CIL till their coal mines become operational.

"In-principle decision has been taken for grant of bridge linkages to power plants of central or state government enterprises that have been allotted coal blocks under government dispensation route," he said.

Bridge linkage shall act like short-term linkages to bridge the gap between requirement of coal by a thermal power plant and the start of production from the linked coal block till such time production actually starts, he said.

Such supply could be granted for three years only to blocks where development of may take time. Coal India estimates a coal requirement of 25-40 million tonnes per annum in the next three years on this account.

NTPC's Ramagundam plant in Telengana has already been granted such coal supply till the time its Mandakini-B mine in Odisha begins operations.